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Battle of Crater 20th June 1967 in 1967
written by Charles Russell
 For all those who served in Aden in 1967 and took part in the battle for Crater. On this day following an uprising by some South Arabian Army troops up country fire was directed against a British 3 ton vehicle, travelling near Champion Lines in Aden State killing a number of soldiers a British civilian working for the PWD was shot dead in Sheik Othman. The Armed Police open fire on a British landrover patrol in Queen Arwa Road Crater killing more soldiers of the joint Northumberland Fusiliers/Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders patrol. It was about this time an army helicopter piloted by Sgt Martin Forde QDG was flying in the area of Temple Cliffs with L/Cpl Keighthly being carried in the litter along the side of the Souix helicopter whilst Fusilier Duffy sat next to the pilot Both Infantrymen were members of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and were being evacuated from a picket duty on Temple Cliffs. Whilst at a low height Sgt Forde was shot through the right knee from a sniper on the top of the jebel. He lost control of the aircraft and it started to yaw he attempted to land but his rotor blades struck the sides of a steep ravine, The aircraft was going down, The pilot managed to keep the helicopter upright as it plunged down the ravine, his immediate thoughts were "fire" and he started switching all the switches off at the same time all his flying training came to the fore He started to transmit the following message. "Mayday,Mayday Army helicopter XT 173 shot down on Temple Cliffs" or words to that effect. The RAF air traffic control operator simply answered "Roger Out". The aircraft crashed at the bottom of the ravine, during which L/Cpl Keighthly was seriously injured which resulted in his having a leg amputated. Sgt Forde was still in the pilots seat when the aircraft stared to catch fire. He was pulled from his seat by Fusilier Duffy who also recovered an A41 radio set and an SLR rifle. During this time fire was still being directed at them from some disidents on the jebel heights, after 3/4 of an hour a Wessex helicopter arrived and deployed some Marines to take on the snipers and to rescue the survivors of helicopter XT 173. Martin states he will never forget those words of the RAF operator
"Roger Out" Fusilier Duffy was later awarded the DCM The little tale of the loss of QDG Helicopter XT 173 on 20th June 1967. |
click here to email Charles Russell about this Campaign/Arena
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